In a series of paintings inspired by 1970s to 2000s iconic films, Dov Talpaz captures a piece of history. Through figurative yet distorted images, the artist provides a critical view on a culture that aspires to determine good from bad, often unquestionably, and is fueled by righteousness and measurable achievements. Who is the hero in these stories? When is our culture (art, music, film, etc.) dominated by capitalism, and how is it manifested in our visual and narrated culture? Are we the designers of our perception, or are we molded by what we were encouraged to systematically digest and watch while growing up? These are only a few questions that rise through this series of new and intriguing paintings.

Indiana Jones, The Goonies, Karate Kid, and The Last Starfighter – didn’t we all grow up on these epic films? Well, at least most of us who grew up in the 80s and 90s. These films were adventurous, fun, and risky. They were about friendship and a mission, they were about good and bad and they were filled with humor. These films shaped our perception of reality as children growing up in the States and in Western culture. It was easy to identify with the characters, as they were often children who portrayed a sense of hope while plunging into their fears and desires, and who discovered the world of adults through a naïve and hopeful perspective. No one knew at the time what the world is heading to. We didn’t know that the capitalist monster will rapidly devour our every means of production and sustainability. Through a critical analysis and a beautiful visual interpretation Talpaz manages to investigate and capture our metamorphosing identity.

Talpaz paints through the prism of an anatomy of characters and a world of colors, with the aim of capturing the overall essence of the film in a single frame. Unlike a comic-strip, the one painted image is either based on one intimate scene or includes other memories from the movie’s timeline. Growing up in both the U.S. and in Israel, these films symbolize what America meant: a land of opportunity, McDonalds, Football, and strength – the American culture ultimately became part of the artist’s personality, and what we (to some extent) aspired to be, and aspire to rebel against.

Consoling Memory (2014-2016) depicts a scene from the movie Karate kid (1984). In the film the unlikely boy-hero has to overcome a much stronger opponent through will and courage. But the story is also about his relationship to an old wise man, an immigrant who teaches the boy ancient wisdom. Here, Talpaz documents an intimate moment where Mr. Miyagi shares a pivotal memory with the boy.

Earlier films from the 70s such as The Godfather (1972 -74), portray the immigrant’s experience of arriving to the U.S. and making a way into society; surviving. It brings to the forefront the huge dilemma between good and evil, ethics, as well as the dichotomy between family and outside world relations. Inspired by this film, in The So Called Morality (2017), Talpaz captures in one frame multiple scenes which portray the father’s visible pain and the double standards of morality. Meanwhile, in the 1975 film Dog Day Afternoon, criminals become celebrities as they are feeding the media, and imitating what they have learned on TV.

Soft adventures, childhood fantasies, and becoming aware of the power of the media, have transitioned in the 2000s to darker and more complex films such asThere Will Be Blood (2007) and No Country For Old Men (2007), in which the nature of capitalism and greed is profoundly present and is characterized by a brutal impenetrable man – a shift from optimism, hope, and innocence, to brutal, fully-aware dark violence.

In The Imaginary Signifier: Psychoanalysis and the Cinema, Christian Metz writes: “…film is like the mirror. But it differs from the primordial mirror in one essential point: although, as in the latter, everything may come to be projected, there is one thing and one thing only that is never reflected in it: the spectator’s own body. In a certain emplacement, the mirror suddenly becomes clear glass.” The two mediums, painting and film, through their own particular means, can transport the viewer into a palpable reality. The works here are created in a child-like color theme, and through an eye-opening psychological perspective (psychedelic?) they provide a subconscious and underwater understanding of the truth of these well-scripted moments.

SARAHCROWN is pleased to present “A Hero’s Journey”, a two-person exhibition conceived for the public spaces of The Yard–Columbus Circle featuring works by Jake Himovitz and Dov Talpaz.

Joseph Campbell describes the Hero as one “who ventures forth from the world of common day into a region of supernatural wonder: fabulous forces are there encountered and a decisive victory is won: the hero comes back from this mysterious adventure with the power to bestow boons on his fellow man.” And so does the Hero in Dov Talpaz’s paintings, drawings, and collages. His Hero travels through the sea and the city, and ultimately into his own self, revealing the different stages of such a journey: the departure, the initiation, the trial, the meeting with the self, and the return. Talpaz’s stylistic and chromatic choices—the juxtaposition of strong colors or the lack of color—emphasize and distill each work's unique narrative elements and psychological or emotional state.

Himovitz’s recent collection of works features, instead, imagery of the cowboy Hero and western landscapes drawn from films, cartoons, and Western comics. Like many children, he was always enthralled by the cowboy lifestyle and stories of the vaquerro, the Mexican word for cowboy that translates directly to “gentleman.” His works limit the view to the very surface of the narrative, told through various well-known and often specific symbols and images. Similar to a sequence of film slides, his paintings offer distinct glimpses into a specific world while leaving the interpretation of the story to the viewer. The works convey a mix of irony and nostalgia, tinged with a sense of regret, perhaps for the loss of personal fulfillment in the march towards progress in the 21st century.

The exhibition will span three floors and will be open until November 30, 2017.

"Can One Speak of Jewish Art?"

New York Studio School Alumni Exhibition

OPENING RECEPTION: THURSDAY JULY 27 2017, 6PM

LOCATION: 8 W 8TH ST, New York, New York

Imbalanced City, 2016, 30x40 Inches, Latex on Wood

The New York Studio School Alumni Association is pleased to announce its 2017 Alumni Exhibition, on view July 27 to August 27, 2017. This year’s exhibition has been juried and then curated by Florence Lynch of Elizabeth Dee Gallery, Anders Bergstrom of Hauser & Wirth, Steven Harvey of Steven Harvey Fine Art Projects and Jennifer Samet of Eric Firestone Gallery. The exhibition will commence with an opening reception and awards night on July 27, from 6PM-8PM at the New York Studio School (NYSS) located at 8 W. 8th St, New York, NY.

Slag Gallery is pleased to present Dov Talpaz’s solo exhibition, Breathing. This is his first solo exhibition with the gallery.

"God breathes through us so completely... so gently we hardly feel it... yet, it is our everything." --John Coltrane

Dov Talpaz is best known for his sense of meditative and romantic storytelling in his work. Delving deep into the complexities of human emotion, Breathing focuses on the connection between music and painting in their composition, energy, and broad spectrum of emotional narratives. Several paintings focus on the figure -- isolated in a state of harsh reflection or a soft sense of longing, while others are directly based off of music and musical instruments.

Complementing the composition of music, Talpaz’s work follows a harmony of form, line, color, and tone. Inspired by the structural philosophy of abstract expressionist Hans Hofmann, Talpaz’s paintings breathe through shapes which create a push and pull effect, creating tension between colors and enabling the experience of depth in flat surfaces. Within these shapes, he harks back to the lyrical and color sensibilities of Wassily Kandinsky, regarding the importance that color becomes object and objects returns to abstract color.

A recurring motif found in several paintings in the series is the trumpet, showcasing the energy through which it plays, as well as the dynamism of the structure itself. “In painting this motif, I wanted to convey through colors, shapes, shadows, reflections, and background fields, the sound the trumpet generates,” Talpaz explains. “Although the musician is absent here, it is his/her rhythmic breathing that merge object and body to create new life. In a way the trumpet becomes a figure: the musician as well as the instrument.”

“Recent Paintings” by Dov Talpaz is an exhibition curated by Fiona Felicitas Eltz for The Engelstein, Grünberger, Mermelstein and Schwarzstahl Studio in Vienna, Austria, where Talpaz presents paintings and drawings that are derived from texts, and reveal his deep fascination with stories and the lives reflected in them.

Taken from or inspired by classical stories, ranging from Dostoyevsky's The Brothers Karamazov, to Isaac Babel's Red Calvary, to popular movies such as Indiana Jones and The Never Ending Story, the figures that appear in Talpaz’s canvases are reinvigorated to generate new narratives—ones that are created through layers of evolution and inspired by the artist’s personal experiences and encounters.

As an artist, Talpaz utilizes his medium to create images that connect us to our own intimate struggles and achievements. In his own words, “Being connected to something is not about the thing; it is about connecting to that which you are drawing/painting, and trying to really be present with that experience.” His work is a reminder that it is always possible to create new stories, but that we can never forget our histories.

--Brooklyn-based artist Dov Talpaz was born in 1977 in Bryan, Texas, and grew up in both Israel and the U.S. He studied painting at The New York Studio School, where he received numerous Merit awards and grants. His works are presented in the U.S. and Israel, and are included in public and private collections across the globe.